Deflect blame to the developer who did what developers do when they sell units: They set the levies artificially low to attract sales and now the new executive committee has the unpleasant task of proposing a budget with them to more realistic levels. Also explain that some major OC costs are going up substantially every year such as insurance. Just explain the reasons clearly and you will probably bring people along. Emphasise that you are all in this together and you don’t like having to pay higher levies either. Strata is us together, not something external imposing on us.